A process control system may be provided in an industrial plant. Such a system normally comprises a number of process control devices involved in the control of the process, such as field devices and process control computers. The operation of these devices is typically monitored by plant operators via operator terminals of the system. Such a process control system may also comprise a wireless communication network, such as a wireless sensor and actuator network.
It may then be of interest to provide a network forming unit, for instance in the form of a network simulation tool for supporting the design of a communication infrastructure to be used for the process control system and the process control applications or functions using it and then especially for the design of a wireless communication network of such a communication infrastructure.
There exist tools for planning of wireless networks, see for instance US 2014/0226524. However, these tools are provided for the implementation of wireless user networks in which users communicate using handsets. However, a process control system typically has specific requirements both on the traffic and on the devices and these requirements are in many ways different from the requirements of a wireless user network. Therefore these kinds of tools are often not suitable for use in relation to process control systems and the wireless communication networks that these employ.
It would therefore be of interest to improve on the above-mentioned situation.